13-year-old Erraid Davies wins an amazing bronze medal

Erraid Davies won an amazing bronze medal at the GlasgowCommonwealth Games at the age of 13. As Scotland’s youngest ever CommonwealthGames participant, Erraid swam in the SB9 100m breaststroke and came thirdbehind New Zealand’s five-time Paralympic gold medalist Sophie Pascoe and Australia’sMelanie Scott, who won silver. Davies wentfrom sixth at the turn to clinch a stunning third place - behindathletes eight years her senior - in her first ever international meeting. Shetland resident, Erraid took up swimming as a young child owingto a hip condition. This followed medical advice to assist her in building upmuscle.

She trains with the Delting club in Shetland and uses a16.7m pool. In her heat, she achieved a 4 second PB, which she improved by afurther half second in the final. Hers is an amazing tale of a schoolgirl beingselected for a home Commonwealth Games.

A communal cheer went up from Shetland as Erraid stood on the podium. Shetland is an archipelago of more than 100 islands lying 200km off the north coast of Scotland and home to only 23,000 residents. Hers was the biggest smile at the end of the race as she realised what she had achieved. She seemed lost for words and admitted to not knowing how she would celebrate. Although surrounded by established Games athletes such as Mark Foster and Rebecca Adlington, she was undaunted.

When asked by the BBC commentators before the final what she hoped to achieve, she claimed that she would "just do her best" and indeed it was an opportunity for Erraid to get their autographs. Now it seems that she has become the star everyone wants to talk about and her name has already swept across social media channels.

Erraid showed incredible restraint and modesty, not evenletting her school friends know she was taking part in Glasgow 2014 until thelast minute. After what she has achieved, she will no longer be able to hide fromthe spotlight. Erraid has now become an overnight star and her profile is onlygoing to get higher.At only 13 years, we are going to hear a lot more about her.

The prospect of Rio in only two years time has become a distinct possibility.

I live in Shetland and have been writing freelance for the last 3 years. I have written on a variety of subjects from nature and wildlife features to tourism related articles, culture and events, and local pieces of interest.

This area provides transparent information about Blasting News, our editorial processes and how we strive for creating trustworthy news. Moreover, it fulfills our commitment to The Trust Project - News with Integrity (Blasting News is not a member of the programme, but has requested to be a part of it - TTP has not conducted a compliance review yet).

We and our partners use technologies, such as cookies, and process personal data, such as IP addresses and cookie identifiers, to personalise ads and content based on your interests, measure the performance of ads and content, and derive insights about the audiences who saw ads and content. For further details, please read our cookie policy. Click on the 'Accept' button to allow these uses or on 'Edit' to get more details and/or reject all or part of them. You can change your mind at any time and change your choices by clicking on 'Edit Consents' at the bottom of the page. If you continue browsing by accessing another area of the site or selecting, for example, an image or a link, you express your consent to the use of cookies and other profiling technologies used by the site.